UPA Tag

Note: This is my translation of Pratap Simha’s column 18 May 2013 column in Kannada Prabha. An incident comes to mind. The incident is recorded in Shanti Bhushan’s autobiography, Courting Destiny. The incident occurred sometime in 1978. Morarji Desai had completed an year as Prime Minister. He began to face threats to his chair. The powerful Janata leader and Home Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh was eyeing Prime Ministership from the beginning. Another leader, Babu Jagjivan Ram too had Prime Ministerial ambitions. Rebellion was brewing at a steady pace. There wereRead More

In Bhitti, his autobiography, Dr. S.L Bhyrappa narrates an eyewitness account of a series of rallies held in Delhi during the infamous Syndicate vs Indicate episode towards the end of the 1960s. These rallies had but a singular aim: to show the “Syndicate” that Mrs. Gandhi enjoyed a massive and popular support. Dr. Bhyrappa recounts how different groups and unions and associations—the Shoemakers, Association, the Garlic Sellers’ Association, the Hawkers’ Association, the Daily Wage Labourers’ Association, and so on—used to take out massive rallies almost every day. Sometimes, multiple ralliesRead More

What’s common to LeT, JuD, Yasin Malik, and Hafiz Saeed? All are terrorists who’ve vowed the destruction of India and have at various points, taken violent steps to make this intention clear. What else is common to LeT, JuD, Yasin Malik, and Hafiz Saeed? All of ‘em terrorists have mourned the execution of the homegrown traitor cum terror mastermind, Afzal Guru. Guess who all else share the aforementioned commonality? Anand Patwardhan—One of the early scavengers of the Gujarat riots, he washed India’s dirty linen in the US and elsewhere inRead More

This man has caused great loss not only to the Muslim community but to the entire society. He may be occupying a very high office, but we will not spare him. He has committed grave and deliberate mistakes. I have ordered a detailed inquiry into the bank’s functioning. This is how Mumtaz Ali Khan, Karnataka Minister for Haj, Wakf and Minority Welfare thundered in November 2009. Guess who he thundered against? The One Who Rightfully Got Elevated in True Congress Tradition of Rewarding the Corrupt. The One Who Now AdornsRead More

Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s original Kannada Prabha piece titled Baaibittare Banna Bayalaaguttademba Bhayave Manmohan Singh published last Saturday. Hazaron jawabon se acchi hai khamoshi meri Na jaane kitne sawalon ke aabroo rakhe So please answer us: how did this loot of epic proportions, of Rs. 1.86 lakh crores, occur right under your nose? When someone asks, “will you please answer the voters who’ve elected you,” you respond with “my silence is greater than a thousand questions.” Does this how the Prime Minister of the world’sRead More

NOTE: This is my translation of Pratap Simha’s piece titled Hindugale Haedigalaagiruvaaga Anyarannu Doori Phalavenu that appeared in Kannada Prabha on August 25, 2012. As always, comments and criticism are welcome. It has been called brain drain or flight of talent. Much noise has been made against it. It has been held responsible for this nation’s continued backwardness. But then, no matter what, in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s decades, people who had dreams of building a bright future for themselves, people who embarked on a quest to find careerRead More

Yet another annual August 15th where we celebrate yet another progressive step towards realizing Nehru’s tryst with tyranny. The nation calls it Independence Day but nobody asks, Independence from what? From British tyranny? To which I question in turn: do you prefer home-grown tyranny over foreign tyranny? Because that’s what we’ve been living under for the past 65 years. If you think tyranny is an extreme term to use, consider these.Read More

Starting about two months ago, the spate of attacks in the media and elsewhere on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been relentless. Narendra Modi is no stranger to having all sorts of abuses, denunciation, and innuendo heaped upon him—for about a decade, he’s faced heat on exactly one issue. Now that the Gujarat riots issue cannot be milked any longer, he’s being attacked for his supposedly authoritarian style of governance, his “false” claims of Gujarat’s growth story, and even silly things that resemble a schoolboy’s complaint to his teacher.Read More

So the Narendra Modi baiter extraordinaire has been suitably rewarded. Social activists Teesta Setalvad and Shabnam Hashmi have been ‘rewarded’ by the UPA-II Government for what seems like their pro-Congress, anti-BJP activities. The HRD Ministry has nominated them in the high-powered decision making body for education in India. Appointing Teesta to a panel that advises the government on education is like appointing Aurangzeb to manage Hindu temples. Not that the current dispensation is any different from Aurangzeb in matters that concern Hindus. Equally, this “appointment” is just the latest illustrationRead More

This was published today in the Pioneer. Comments and criticism welcome as always. By deftly using state power to promote the party’s first family, the Congress has created a unique political ecosystem. The media has collaborated. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly election has seen the media beaming footage of the Nehru-Gandhi family’s adventures in deception. Those who still harbour illusions about the media’s neutrality need to look at the Assembly election coverage. So why does the media stand so steadfastly by the Congress? And why does it portray the only otherRead More

Here’s a quick and dirty explanation of the so-called India Against Corruption (IAC) movement. Draw your own conclusions. Click the thumbnails to view the full-size image. Picture 1: Rough timeline of major events surrounding the IAC movement Picture 2: How the IAC’s demands were met (with inputs from a friend over email)Read More

Give the dog a bad name and hang it. A variation of this technique, pioneered by Lenin in his infamous “stick the convict badge,” an old favourite of our now-languishing comrades on the Left—from calling Subash Bose a running dog of imperialism to various other customized slander—has been perfected by the Congress party. Of all political parties in the country, the Congress feels the most uncomfortable being out of power even for a few seconds and once there, feels compelled not to hide its tyrannical tendencies. Of all political parties,Read More

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Swapan Dasgupta, a writer I’ve admired for long writes in the Wall Street Journal about the BJP’s chance of making a fresh start under Nitin Gadkari. It’s really an OK piece compared to Swapan’s more incisive articles. No new insight

This is the reason people like Annie shouldn’t be allowed inside temples. And lest anybody jump at me for making “communal” references, I hereby state unequivocally, that the above statement applies to everybody, irrespective of their religion.

For a backgrounder, please read my introductory post on Mahayana Buddhism. Introduction Shunyavadins were also called Madhyamikas meaning they identified themselves with the Middle Path realized by Buddha during his Nirvana. The Middle Path is named so not only because

I had concluded the previous post with a note on AKR’s understanding of Hindu ethics and traditional expositions on Dharma. He notes that Each addition is really a subtraction from any universal law. There is not much left of an

Do Indians have a sense of history? No is pretty much the received wisdom even today in major sections of the academia, media and the rest. If you as much as question the sources, the roots of this received wisdom,

Read Part 1 Sanskrit and Deliberate Distortion I’ll repeat what it already superfluous: understanding Indian philosophy requires an advanced knowledge of Sanskrit because that was the language in which this most profound philosophy was laid down originally. I stress on

Here’s another dose of assaulting news after Jayalalithaa destroyed the Kanchi Mutt in one stroke. The director, Leela Samson, took charge about one and a half years ago at Kalakshetra Foundation, which has a tradition of more than 50 years.

Preface It began with this factual article by Dr. Aseem Shukla who exposed the “theft of Yoga” in America. Dr. Shukla details out what we already knew: that Yoga has been appropriated by self-proclaimed “Masters” and “Yogis” and that it

A question that repeatedly seems to haunt the Indian mainstream media: how to "balance" Hinduism with Semitic religions? This question assumes importance in issues where the religious aspect assumes great significance. So Sethusamudram is the latest issue, which has been

Read Field Notes 1 and 2. In the first part, I mentioned that monuments “represent vibrant showcases of the deep commitment, which a nation displays in preserving the memory of people and places these nations have much to be proud

As promised, I present the first few verses drawn from Bhartruhari’s Neeti Shataka. A brief introduction to Neeti Shataka is in order. Neeti can generally be understood as a teaching/exposition of morality, conduct, wisdom, behaviour, prudence, and all of these.

Today is Makara Sankranti, celebrated across India to both herald the beginning of longer days, and reap the harvest of months of backbreaking work in the fields. But the greater significance of Makara Sankranti like most Hindu festivals, is to